The Inside Story.
Racing the Perth Criterium Series: a Plan B Racing Team Perspective.
Race 1. Joondalup.
Apart from the challenge of reduced lighting due to the commencement of the race after
sunset, one of the greatest challenges in racing this particular circuit is that it is the first race of the
series and is therefore always a shock to the system. With the individuals comprising the Plan B team
being in some great fitness the expectation was to have a rider on the podium at the end of the series in
the general point’s classification for overall honors.
The race started out fast with plenty of action happening around the L-shaped circuit. As there are many
corners the objective was to get away in a small group and try and maintain a distance from the faster
sprinters. As Plan B does not have a pure sprinter the team was looking to facilitate a breakaway.
The numbers of attacks were many with the plan B riders doing well to cover most of the moves in the
first 10mins. However a moment’s hesitation allowed Cameron Meyer to break clear with another
strong rider Braunsteins from the Budget Forklifts team which proved to be the race winning move.
Several of the riders that were left in the peloton hadn’t realized that a move had gone clear as the
lighting around the course was probably not sufficient.
This move went clear, while the remainder of the peloton fought out the minor placings. Several attacks
went clear by no more then 50-100m until the last lap approached where Anthony Giacoppo of Plan B
racing hit the peloton to break clear solo. With Anthony up the road Brad, Adam and Elliot sort to keep
the peloton from reeling Anthony back in.
Anthony showed great strength and foresight to stay away for 3rd on the stage while Adam gave Brad a
good lead out toward the final corner were Brad managed to consolidate 6th with the sprinters Graeme
Brown and Carlo Barrendillo proving too strong in the surge for the line claiming 4th and 5th respectively.
As points are awarded to the top 10 riders on each stage the Joondalup race proved to be a good night
out for the team with one of our riders placed on the podium and another with some points to
contribute toward the general classification.
Anthony on the podium for the first stage in Joondalup.
Race 2. Northbridge.
This circuit was the most flowing of the series. It resembled a rectangle in shape and had
relatively flowing corners for the peloton to navigate through. A circuit like this almost always ends up in
a bunch sprint as it is difficult for a group of riders to get clear when there are two long straights were
the peloton can organize a chase ‘en masse’ to real them in.
Around the half way mark a group of riders formed off the front of the peloton and had quickly moved
out to 20secs, which was a significant amount given the small course. Of these riders Plan B racing was
well represented by Anthony Giacoppo who was the team’s best placed rider over all after last night’s
third placing. However the team of the Meyer brothers and Graeme Brown were not content to let a
group like this fly off the front of the peloton. After 4 laps of frantic chasing the group was brought back
together, although the whole peloton had gone from a single mass to a disjointed mess, this being
reflective of the high speed with which the group had been reeled in.
A bunch sprint was the order of the day here. On the last lap Elliot Wells singled for a Plan B ‘lead out
train’ and collected Brad Hall and Anthony Giacoppo in that order with a lap to go. Plan B Racing Team
hit the front with one lap remaining with Elliot absolutely burying himself to get Brad and Anthony in the
front with half a lap remaining.
A Plan B ‘Team’ led out train during the final lap of racing
As Elliot peeled off as Brad maintained the pace with Anthony on his wheel. Travis Meyer hit over the
top of Brad and Anthony in an effort to take Brother Cameron to the line, Brad jumped on the back of
Cameron’s wheel and stayed with the duo until the final two corners. Here the ‘pure sprinters’ Carlo and
Graeme hit the front as about six of the riders including Brad and Anthony bottlenecked into the final
corners.
Coming out of the final corners Carlo and Graeme had a significant gap from the remaining riders and
went on to contest the sprint for first with Travis claiming third and Brad Hall fourth. Anthony managed
a 7th placing which kept him in the chase for over all honors. Another good performance by the team,
with the combined efforts of the team facilitating another top five result in Perth’s premier criterium
event.
Whilst the placings went to Brad and Anthony, Elliot’s effort to move these two riders to the front
resulted in him finishing at the back of the main field. Whilst this may appear to be a ‘non-result’, in
actually fact his effort was absolutely instrumental in setting up Brad and Anthony for a good finish, for
without a selfless effort such as this good results are even harder to come by. This is a prime example of
the emerging constitution within the Plan B Racing Team. That being: the groups combined strength is
greater than the sum of its individual parts; team work and self sacrifice are the hallmarks of a collective
cohesion and a willingness to support another no matter what the personal cost. These are the
attributes of a great team.
Race 3. Victoria Park.
This circuit is traditionally a very technical and physically demanding course. The L-shape of the circuit is
similar to the Joondalup course but the distance between corners is shorter and turning radius tighter.
After about 20 minutes of racing the field had been depleted to about a third of its original size. As the
circuit has a complete 180 degree turn at one end with the radius of that turn being approximately
3meters only a select number of riders usually can make it around without being dropped when the
pace goes up at the front.
To give an indication of the physical strain placed on the riders, upon completion of the race an analysis
of Brad Hall’s heart rate data revealed that Brad had managed to race above his threshold (what he can
maintain for approximately 3 minutes) for 12.5 minutes. This was twice to three times longer than he
had previously experienced during the two criteriums. Ouch!
After the half way mark the field began to break up even further as the race turned into a battle of
attrition. Toward the later stages of the race much effort had been placed on the Plan B riders to keep
the group together until such a point that a selection of riders formed that represented our best
interest. Ideally this would have included Plan B riders Anthony or Brad or a lone Plan B rider escaping
without another rider who posed a threat to the teams’ hope of gaining a podium spot on the overall
point’s classification.
Within the final 10minutes Adam Semple managed to break free of the peloton solo and maintained a
70m lead. Finally Travis Meyer blasted across to him to form a two man breakaway. This outcome was
not in our best interests given our goal of a final podium spot. A choice was made by Brad Hall not to
close the front group of two as the peloton looked set to allow them to stay away to contest the win.
Adam Semple attempting to break clear of the group in the closing stages of racing.
As the last lap approached Brad Hall collected Anthony Giacoppo and moved them both up to the front
of the peloton in the hope of getting Anthony onto the final straight in second or first position, however
the tight corners proved to be too congested and Anthony lost Brads wheel in the remaining 500
meters. Brad noticed this and turned the pace off a little so that Anthony may be able to springboard
into the final corner and on to a third place for the stage.
Anthony hit out hard into the final corner with Brad ceasing to pedal in a hope that several of the riders
behind him would have to go around or get blocked by him moving backwards. On coming out of the
final corner with 200 meters to go Anthony had several bike lengths over his nearest competitor and has
an uphill 200m sprint remaining.
Due to the fact that Anthony had to hit out earlier than expected and without a full lead out from his
team mate Brad, he had spent much of his explosive power in navigating around the remaining riders.
This was evident in the fact that 3 riders managed to overtake him in the closing 100m before the line.
These efforts allowed Plan B to finish with a 6th and a 9th placing from the main group, while Adam had
ridden exceptionally to finish second to Travis Meyer, Australia’s newly crowned professional cycling
champion.
Adam Semple (left) on the podium for the 3rd stage in Victoria Park.
Once again Plan B had shown that selfless acts are a central theme to their cycling philosophy. The
efforts of Brad Hall in attempting to springboard Anthony to a podium spot for the stage amounted to
himself losing valuable points in the hunt for a top five victory on the general points classification, but
gave the team an opportunity to potentially taste the sweet success of overall glory in a general podium
spot at the culmination of the event.
The culmination of these efforts meant that the likelihood of a podium finish for the general
classification would now seem out of reach. Anthony was fourth by one point; however the top three
riders had a buffer of several points, which with one race remaining would be hard to close.
Race 4. Leederville.
The Leederville race is largely feared by Perth riders and for good reason. The circuit forms another ‘Lshape’ though the distance between corners is shorter than any of the previous circuits, while the radius
of these corners is also less than 3 meters, therefore creating a narrow challenging race.
The Plan B team assembled on the start line as one unit. The game plan was to go out hard and try and
create a selection of our rides at the front of the peloton so that we could stay clear of the middle of the
peloton where too much braking might result in increased fatigue over the course of the race. Elliot and
Brad were quick to establish themselves on the front of the race and rolled turns for the first 4 laps
allowing for the rest of the Plan B team to position themselves toward the front of the group.
Finally the attacks commenced with Cameron and Travis the main instigators as they attempted to
dislodge Graeme Brown as race leader. With this threesome preoccupied with watching each other, the
rest of the riders attempted to either hang on or have a go at attacking between Cam and Trav’s efforts.
None of the attacks really stuck, but by half way the field had been reduced to around 15 riders from the
original 35. With around 10 minutes remaining three riders managed to get clear from the peloton and
really started to make inroads at establishing a winning move. Hilton, Andrew and another Andrew were
swapping hard turns with each other and had a significant 200m gap on the peloton.
Brad Hall hit out in an effort to bridge across to the front three, however after about half a lap Graeme
Brown had jumped across to Brad’s wheel. The front three were only 20 meters in front at this stage
from Graeme and Brad, with brad swinging wide in the hope that Graeme would close the remaining 20
meters. Graeme was reluctant to give a turn and the three managed to increase their lead again.
With only minutes left in the bike race and the main field closing in on Brad and Graeme, Brad decided
that the group of three had to be closed down or kept to a minimum in order to give the team a chance
at getting a result. Brad managed almost three laps on the front driving to keep the break within range.
With three laps remaining Brad swung off at the 180 degree corner and Adam Semple hit out toward the
three rides, which had been reduced to two, in an effort to shut the break down.
Adam was well marked and swung off as the peloton followed his effort toward the escapees. This
provided an opportune moment for a rider to hit out across the gap to the front. Anthony Giacoppo
managed just that and with lightening speed threw himself and his bike into the L shaped section of the
course and onto the back wheel of the two escapees without dragging any other riders across.
With two laps remaining Anthony helped to keep the pace high in the front group. As the one lap to go
bell rang, Anthony hit the front and never looked back. He managed to create a reasonable gap from the
other two riders as he approached the final 180 degree corner 200meters from the finish line. Anthony
swept through the final corner, accelerated hard toward the line and then had plenty of time to spread
his arms as he soared over the finish line giving the crowd a perfect ‘Plan B’ victory salute!!!
Anthony Winning the Leederville Criterium in Style.
What an effort. Anthony had managed to do the seemingly impossible and used his strength of speed
and intelligence in timing a perfect counter attack off the back of some solid team work. These efforts
managed to place Anthony at second overall on the point’s general classification. This was another
outstanding result given the fact that the other top three riders are all professional bike riders being
paid a considerable amount to only ride their bikes.
Anthony Finishing Second Overall on the General Points Classification.
This result is once again reflective of the selfless attitude that forms the teams’ central philosophy. Here
the whole team contributed to creating an opportunity for victory with Anthony seizing this opportunity
by utilizing his intelligence, self-belief, physical strength and unwavering determination to achieve a
result that amounts to one of the greatest victories this team has ever seen.
As the author of this brief and as a bike rider with numerous experience racing around Europe, Asia and
Australia, I must say that I feel it is my duty to pass on as much information about technical aspects of
racing as I can to these talented younger athletes through my time as a Plan B rider. Anthony’s victory
reminded me of the virtue of teamwork and team cohesion but it also taught me a valuable lesson
about his, and therefore anyone’s, ability to finish a bike race within the dying stages of a race. Here the
teacher truly became the student.
Thank you for your time in reading this, I hope it is as insightful for you as the last four days have been
for me.
Kind regards,
Brad Hall.